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Field notes from technical due diligence, for people who invest in software companies. Three findings, three board questions and a word from Andreas Creten, every few weeks.

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From our SaaS audits

What we find inside SaaS companies

Patterns from the technical due diligences we run for investors and boards.

See the audit findings

Your startup does not need more engineers, it needs fewer mistakes

Hiring to fix velocity often multiplies your problems. Reduce avoidable mistakes first: tighten decision-making, align product and engineering, and put foundations in place that make a small team dangerous in the right way.

Navigating Outages: lessons from recent cloud failures

Outages can strike unexpectedly, impacting businesses and users alike. In this episode of the SaaS Show, hosts Andreas and Sjimi delve into the recent outages experienced by major cloud providers like Amazon and Cloudflare.

How to pragmatically leverage AI as a startup

If you believe what you see on LinkedIn, startups don't need employees anymore, real founders just have agents building their companies. You write a prompt, fire off the agent, and wait for customers. In reality, you get a vague workflow that produces a mediocre demo at best.

The End of “AI-powered”

Of course your product is AI-based. There is no need mention this anymore. Tech loves a fashionable label. Web 2.0 had its moment, then mobile, then the cloud. Do not tell me your product uses AI. Tell me what your product can do that was impossible before AI existed.

What will the state of AI be like by this time next year?

What will the state of AI be like in a year's time? Here are Mike Veerman's predictions of what major things will happen next in AI

Legacy vs technical debt: how investors can spot hidden risks in software products

What can investors do about legacy code to prevent your startup from failure? What is the difference between legacy and technical debt?

You can't delegate accountability: what the NIS2 directive means for boards

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: board members can’t delegate accountability. Not for budgets. Not for legal compliance. And no longer for cybersecurity.

Fitness for purpose: taking risks with quality

When product teams obsess over perfect quality, they risk standing still, but by embracing a 'fit for purpose' mindset and planning for instability, they can move faster and smarter.

Offboarding: The security hole nobody wants to talk about

Offboarding is a crucial part of security. Forgotten accounts and overlooked credentials can expose your systems to risk. This post offers real examples, a checklist approach, and clear steps to make offboarding more reliable across teams.

These questions will be answered after technical due diligence

Investing without technical due diligence is like buying a used car without opening the bonnet. This article demystifies the audit process, shares what red flags we look for, and explains why investors should care deeply about code, processes and product.

Technical due diligence is broken: going beyond the checklist

Most technical due diligence audits focus on code quality and tooling, but the real risk lies in invisible processes, fragile teams, and product chaos, which is why madewithlove audits the full stack of your organisation, from code to culture.

What would it cost to rebuild this software from scratch?

Evaluating the cost of rebuilding software from scratch involves more than counting development hours; it requires recognising the invisible value of user feedback, lessons learned, and embedded experience.

Making progress without a technical leader

Startups without a technical co-founder can still build great products, but only if they avoid the usual traps of overengineering, needless infrastructure, and late developer involvement.

Due diligence for AI startups: what actually matters

Founders and investors due diligence: how to dig beneath the “AI-powered” facade and verify that their systems won’t break in secret.

5 red flags for VCs when planning to invest in Seed or Series A companies

Discover the five most common technical-due-diligence red flags—from undersized or misaligned teams to “just-about-working” codebases—that VCs must spot before writing a cheque.

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